Target Briefing, Imperial Legion Second Division – Wildlife Control. Sharing this document requires express approval from Legion authorities.
The stone drake is a heavy-bodied quadruped, roughly twice the mass of large bear species. Its most distinctive feature is a set of short wings that fold so flush against the body that a motionless drake on a rocky slope reads as geology rather than animal. The wings are not built for sustained flight; they generate enough lift for explosive short-range launches from height or from a crouch. The creature’s wings are covered in the same dense, grey-brown stone-textured scaling as the rest of the hide. A broad dorsal ridge of calcified bone plates runs from the neck to the tail, terminating in outward-angled spurs. The eyes are amber-gold, wide-set, with a vertical slit pupil and a patience in the gaze that observers consistently describe before they describe anything else.
Stone drakes are ambush predators that do not pursue prey at sustained speed. They locate a position above a game trail, river crossing, or open approach, press flat, and wait. The attack is a drop — several hundred pounds of stone-plated animal from elevation, wings deploying on impact to pin the target. They are solitary, territorial, and concentrated in difficult terrain where bare rock provides ideal cover. They will predate on most creatures in their habitat, and have been known to raid unprotected human settlements on occasion.
Stone drakes increase in size with age, a trait shared with various drake species. Elder drakes are more dangerous due to a combination of size, and an evident increase in cleverness as they age. If a drake nest is found, eradication should begin immediately to prevent the infestation from spreading.